According to MoMA officials, the games and current exhibit represent the start of what they hope will amount to an acquisition of some 40 videogames in the coming years. The first 14 of those games were chosen for their interaction design, visual quality, aesthetic experience and code elegance.

The museum is taking the games seriously. The originals are exhibited as works of art, so museumgoers are forbidden to touch them. However, those wishing to try their hand at classic Pac-Man can do so at specially designed stations. To create the stations, MoMA contacted the original manufacturers, including Namco and Nintendo, to obtain the source codes for the featured games.

A year ago in Washington, DC, the Smithsonian American Art Museum produced an exhibition on videogame art that featured 80 landmark games spanning the medium's 40-year history. | SEE STORY

The MoMA videogame showing opened on March 2 and the games will be on display through Jan. 31, 2014. The museum is located at 11 W. 53rd St.